Oh, Christmas Tree
by darkpartofmydestiny
Summary: Set in my "Just Good Friends" world. Sarah and Jareth decorate the Christmas tree. Unashamed Christmas fluff.


_3rd December 1992_

Sarah sighed with relief as she caught sight of her front door. Her arms ached and she was so hot she thought she might explode. She dropped the weight she was carrying and rummaged in her purse for her keys. She stumbled on until she was in front of her apartment, turning the key in the lock. She heard the TV on.

"Jareth?" She called out, half hoping he wasn't there so she could still surprise him. He'd been away for a few days dealing with some goblin uprising, and Sarah had received a message that morning to say he wouldn't be finished for a few more days at least. She was desperate to see him, of course she was, but at the same time she rarely got to surprise him.

"Hello darling! I know I told you I'd be a bit longer, but the goblins got their act together in the end." He replied cheerfully. Sarah cursed under her breath, and decided to just give up on any pretense of a surprise. She turned back into the hall and began to pull the thing she'd been carrying for what felt like hours in through the front door. Jareth peered round to see what she was doing, and raised a glittery eyebrow in curiosity.

"What?" She asked defensively, groaning as she struggled.

"Sarah, why are you dragging a tree into your home?" Jareth asked with a frown, turning off the television and getting up. Sarah hoped he might help her, but instead he just leaned against the doorframe. He was staring at her like she was the strangest thing in the world - rich, coming from someone who was currently wearing the sparkliest red jacket she'd ever seen, combined with skin tight leggings.

"It's a Christmas tree." Sarah stopped pulling on the tree - mainly because it was firmly wedged in the front door. "Can you come help me instead of asking dumb questions?"

"Christmas. I know this word." Jareth stayed firmly where he was, too busy thinking to come and help her. Sarah rolled her eyes as she moved to kick the tree through the door. She winced as her foot hit the trunk, forgetting how solid wood was. She looked up again, but Jareth hadn't even noticed. She could see his lips move silently, the word "Christmas" the only thing he was saying as if repeating it endlessly would bring the meaning into his mind. She growled impatiently.

"You must know what Christmas is. You watch enough TV that I'm sure you know everything about it. You've never seen a holiday special?" She sat down beside the tree, giving up temporarily. She must have looked a mess; she'd dragged this thing ten blocks all by herself, and she was so hot and sweaty she felt like she was in the Bahamas rather than a snowy New York City.

"Now you mention it, there was a rather charming episode of-" Jareth began his favourite past time of repeating every detail of every television show he'd ever seen, but Sarah held up a hand to stop him.

"Look, you can tell me all about it later. Help me bring it in." She clambered to her feet, and Jareth was suddenly by her side. He helped pull her up, gazing down at the netted tree in bemusement. Sarah ignored him, busying herself dragging the tree further into the apartment so she could close the door. The tree smelled delicious, the pine scent taking her back to being a little girl. She had loved Christmas so much; heck, she still did. She was so excited to share it with Jareth - so far, he seemed a little underwhelmed.

"You humans really are strange creatures, dearest." Jareth shook his head, but followed Sarah's lead in lifting up the tree and bringing it in. "Where exactly are you going to _put_ this monstrosity, darling? You're not exactly blessed with space."

"I hadn't thought of that," Sarah admitted; the tree had been something of an impulse buy. She'd seen someone selling them and thought it'd make a great surprise for Jareth. Once she'd given the guy her money and started pulling the tree through the streets of New York, she'd changed her mind. Seeing the enormous tree in her tiny apartment confirmed that it had been a terrible idea. "My dad sent me a whole bunch of holiday decorations as a gift and I thought a tree would be cool."

"So what do you _do_ with the tree?" Jareth asked interestedly. He watched as Sarah got a pair of scissors and cut the netting off the tree. The tree was decidedly unsteady on the ground, the trunk cut unevenly. There was no way it would stay standing for long, and Jareth wondered if Sarah had lost her mind. "Does it stand up?"

"I bought a holder for it. You put stuff on it. Like, pretty stuff. There are Christmas lights, an angel on top - all sorts of things. Anything you want." Sarah shrugged. "My dad sent me a whole bunch of candy canes too. You're meant to hang them on the tree, but if you're a good boy I'll let you eat one." Jareth had an impossibly sweet tooth, and the promise of food (although he wondered why somebody would make a cane out of candy) was enough to tempt him into helping.

"Where are you going to put it?" Jareth asked again. The tree was so wide it took up the entire space between Sarah's bed and the wall, making it impossible to get past. Really, this seemed like a most peculiar tradition. Trees belonged outside, and the needles were already shedding all over the floor.

"Right here. We can just climb on the bed to get to the bathroom, okay?" She asked, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You need to get in the Christmas spirit mister! No Scrooges here!"

"That would be somewhat easier if I had the faintest bloody idea what you were talking about." Jareth dralwed, but Sarah just waved him away, bending down and beginning to pull out boxes from underneath her bed. Jareth tried to pretend he wasn't blatently staring at her behind as she rummaged, but as she couldn't see him he decided such an exercise was futile.

"Dad sent me these weeks ago. Pretty nice of him, huh?" Sarah would be going home for Christmas anyway, but she was busy in the city right up until Christmas Eve. The thought of being in a Christmas-less apartment was something that upset her, and her father knew just how much she loved Christmas. "Okay, let me get the holder for the tree and then we can start. I'll tell you the Christmas story whilst we work, kay?"

When they were done, some hours later, Sarah switched off the apartment lights and stood back to admire their handy work. Jareth was a perfectionist; he had arranged the tree ornaments in a perfectly symmetrical manner, carefully deliberating over which ones went where. For someone who claimed to know nothing about Christmas trees (and openly said he thought the entire thing was ludicrous the entire time they were hanging ornaments) he was very good at decorating them.

"It looks great." Sarah sighed happily. Jareth moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. "Do you like it?"

"Very much." His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, and she turned her head to look at him. It was as if he was in a trance, the lights and the shining decorations enchanting him. She knew how much he loved anything shiny, something she had learned was a typical trait of the Fae. She could never forget the sight, some weeks before, of Jareth sitting on her kitchen floor, surrounded by utensils, staring intently at his own reflection in a ladle.

"I wanted to surprise you," Sarah said softly, her hands covering his. "I wanted to share this with you. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I'm glad we did it together."

"Thank you for sharing this with me." Jareth whispered in her ear. Even after all these months, Sarah loved how caring and gentle he was in private. It was so different from the man she had refused all those years ago; there was no act now. "I feel I should make my own contribution to the tree."

"Like what?" Sarah asked, trying not to laugh as he peered at the tree with a serious expression on his face, as though trying to decide exactly _what_ he could add to his masterpiece.

Jareth's hands moved away from her waist, and he took a step back. With a twist of his hands, a crystal shimmered in the darkness. It rolled gently in the palm of his hand, and he held it out to her. Sarah hesitated; he rarely used magic in front of her, and for a moment she felt a quick, piercing stab of fear that took her back to the night they had first - well, "met" seemed a little too polite for what had happened all those years ago.

Jareth looked at her, wondering why she was taking so long. "Take it love, I haven't got all day. I've got a meeting in three days."

Murmuring a guilty apology, Sarah reached for the crystal. As her fingertips brushed over it, the sphere faded away, leaving in its place a small model of a fairy. She picked it up cautiously, worried she would break it. It was so delicate it looked as though it had been crafted from spider webs.

"It might not be an angel," Jareth watched her face carefully as she examined the gift wordlessly. "But I thought a fairy would work just as well at the top of your tree."

He obviously didn't know how similar angels and fairies were in appearance, his idea of putting a fairy at the top of the tree a strange coincidence. Sarah smiled, climbing onto her bed and reaching towards the top of the tree. There was no way of placing the fairy; no loop of string, no cone. She rested the fairy on the very tip of the tree and was completely unsurprised at the fact it stayed there all by itself.

"It's beautiful." Sarah breathed, climbing down and enveloping Jareth in a tight embrace. "I don't think I've ever seen anything as exquisite as that."

She could feel Jareth laugh, that familiar, self-satisfied smirk surely spreading over his face.

"I should hope not."

* * *

 **A/N: Hi guys! I'm not dead! (Seriously, I've had at least three messages checking I'm still alive..) This was just a little fluffy standalone piece set in my Just Good Friends story (it didn't fit in the story as that's currently several months before Christmas). I am working on the main story and I hope to have an update for you all soon. Thanks so much for reading, and have a great Christmas if you celebrate it!  
**


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